After flying this week, I learned some things about myself and what I really miss about flying: vanity and routine.
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Routine Is Comforting
There is something about the routine of air travel. For highly frequent flyers, the last year has been a more than just time working from home instead of from the road, an extended break from vacations – for us it was a sea change and an uncomfortable one at that.
For flyers like myself, I knew the United Pittsburgh-Houston schedule like New Yorkers taking the subway. When leaving a hotel, I pack a certain way, my electronics go in the bag left, all of the zippers align to one quarter of my bag at the same point. Why? Years of learning efficiency through trial and error.
There’s a motion. Drive the rental car back, toss the key on dash, leave the car running, make chit chat on the way to retrieving my bag from the back seat. Up the escalator, first door on the right, Terminal A or B – nearly always – CLEAR, then empty my pockets into the tray, slide my backpack behind, reveal my belt buckle (just in case it sets off the alarm), fill my pockets back up, sling my backpack over my shoulder, click heels in the direction of my gate.
Then it all changed.
In order to get on a plane, the rituals all changed. We once rolled our eyes at Naomi Campbell, whose hyaluronic acid and sheet mask protocol looked like hypochondria to the extreme. Now, the advice isn’t “drink lots of water” and tips for beating jet lag – it’s fashionable masks, limited flight schedules, and we have all had to become experts in testing protocol.
I missed the routine, the sense of everyday adventure waiting at the other side of it. I missed the ownership I had over that routine, the process, the timeline. I never thought I would.
I Admit Vanity Is a Problem
There’s something else that I missed, vanity. I’m not proud of it and never realized how much I enjoyed it, but everything about the last year’s travel has been an uninspiring event. Nothing was special.
I can downplay its importance all I want, but I loved being remembered at a property for being a Globalist. I missed the joy of boarding first and settling in to a first class seat that I didn’t pay for, but rather it was given to me because I was special, because I was valuable to the airline.
No one prioritizes your existence at the grocery store. There’s no elite loyalty lane at the gas station. No one is envious of your trip to Chipotle.
It’s petty and small, but I liked being special. I enjoyed people accommodating me. And while it may not endear any readers on LiveAndLetsFly.com – it’s dead honest.
I never flaunted the elite travel experience on social media the way others do. But I wasn’t shy about explaining why my experience is different when someone would tell me they hate flying. I didn’t mind showing them pictures of the trip I returned from with a lie flat bed, or medium rare filet and service on demand. And that was vanity too, even if I pretended I was just helping them see how flying doesn’t actually suck.
I, and most of our readership, have been humbled in the last 12 months. But I think it’s ok to both recognize that this problem exists, and also miss the positive things that surrounded it.
Melancholy
A sad feeling overcame me at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport this week. Most of the elements were normal, save for the announcements regarding face covering and masks – it was pretty much business as usual.
But it didn’t feel normal, it felt like something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it passing by people at gates, airplanes arriving and departing, a paper mask wasn’t really that different, it was a sense of hopelessness.
When once, I’d have passed by gates with destinations like Dubai, Mexico City, Paris, and Tokyo, and thought “Maybe I’ll go there next” now I look at empty gates and an ANA 787 that I won’t fly to Tokyo because even if I did, it wouldn’t be the same.
I’m sure that pilots and flight attendants felt the same melancholy that I did this week getting back onto a plane in a normal routine. Perhaps they didn’t miss the way their skin feels dry in the canned air at altitude or condescending passengers with unreasonable demands, but they did.
Conclusion
Like driving through my old stomping grounds to my childhood home, there was a comfort in going through the old routines. I miss that and I hadn’t really realized how much of it I missed. Equally, I am comfortable admitting that I miss the feelings of elite status and treatment. Some readers may choose to think less of me for saying it out loud, others may feel it themselves. I’m not saying vanity is a good thing, I’m not even masking it as “recognition” but I am sure some will take the chance to take a pot shot anyway – go on, then.
The real loss of routine flying is the feeling of hopelessness, that the world that we once knew is still gone and not coming back any time soon.
What do you think? Do you miss routine flying and traveling? Do you miss the vanity of it all? Does you feel hopeless?
So you basically miss the endorphin rush you get when you travel in premium class and get hotel updrages versus being treated as part of the regular cattle class in your everyday life…?
“I never flaunted the elite travel experience on social media the way others do”
Well, you kind of did it occasionally on this suite, no? 😉
Site, not suite.
I mean, maybe. I don’t really feature champagne glasses and caviar (never tried it), I’ve maybe reviewed 3-5 business class flights in 700 posts – I’m probably the greatest fan of Spirit on the internet outside of its employees.
Hence why I added part about hotel upgrades…luxury hotel stays count as well 😉
And the rush of flying and staying in premium isn’t just about “champagne glasses and caviar”, it’s about getting past the velvet rope…which lets be honest, is what premium classes look like from the POV of economy class passengers or staying in regular hotel rooms. And for others, its about a lie flat bed, or medium rare filet and service on demand…
Nice article!! I enjoyed it.
There’s certainly vanity in being in first class, first to board etc. I have to admit it too! My kids will tell the uber driver “we flew in first class”, and I have to quickly reply “on points”!
When my kids say that to the uber driver, I’m always quick to add “we’re trying to help the environment by flying private less often this year”
This!
Vanity of vanities all is vanity!
The best piece you have written, Kyle. Kudos.
I also miss seeing a plane boarding for some exotic destination and thinking about planning a trip to said exotic destination. Or another one. Or better yet- being on that plane going to that exotic destination. It’s been about one year since I went on my last big trip- to Vietnam- and I’m so glad I got in one last big trip. Who knows when that’ll happen again.
Thanks for putting my thoughts in writing. I used to take 4 flights a week for almost 20 years. The rhythm of preparation, air travel, and work gave motivated me. The more I traveled the more I wanted to travel. In fact, the occasional months that I wasn’t on the road, I’d take the subway to the airport to remind myself that the joy of travel was never far off. Just as you, I’d walk past gates of people flying to distant countries and I’d take mental notes – adding destinations to my to-do list. Now – I haven’t flown for nearly a year. Work from home sucks. Travel used to keep me on my toes, constantly adapting to new locations, new people, new adventures, quickly acting and reacting to the rapid pace of change around me. Now – it’s four apartment walls and the fading hope that things will return to the old norm. I think when this pandemic subsides I’ll travel with a pent up energy /vengeance / frustration to make up for a lost year.
Sigh. I’ve had my first jab so now just sitting here waiting. Another sigh.
I’m with you Kyle.
My exact sentiments. Thank you for expanding the definition of hopelessness to encompass the loss of patterns and the small validations that lifted ones spirits, gave discipline and pattern.
Your blog gave needed comfort and acknowledgement today.
Great article. I understand this feeling as I flew back home (Germany) from Denver on LH in J in December. It was nice but it wasn’t the same. There wasn’t that excitement like before Covid. I applaud LH though as their service remained nearly unchanged. I really enjoyed that where many other carriers used the pandemic as an excuse to make massive cuts to service.
With Covid cases rapidly declining and vaccines being delivered at a high level (128 million doses already given world wide/ avg 4.7 million doses a day) how about a write up of optimism and news about the new travel vaccine passport? There’s a lot of positives on the horizon and I think travel will reopen a lot more this summer and into the second half of the year and I’m really excited about that.
I miss the many long-haul trips I used to make which were as much about being treated special and as an adventure. The world will be a different place when finally this pandemic peters out but meanwhile it’s depressing not to be able to go anywhere.
If you really want to feel depressed, think about the day, not that far away I fear, that all of the current restrictions on air travel, and particularly long haul, will be either kept or reimposed in the name of saving the planet from global warming. AOC’s Green Initiative called for the elimination of all air travel, and there are growing calls for Biden/Harris to declare a climate emergency giving the president near dictatorial powers. Hope I am wrong, butI fear it will be done “for our own good”
Give me a break with your fear porn. Biden won and socialism is still nowhere to be found. The climate is an emergency, but we all know planes aren’t going anywhere. Trump lost, move on, take a breath and save your energy.
Um, the ‘Green New Deal’ doesn’t call for ‘end’ to air travel…
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/green-new-deal-doesnt-call-for-end-to-air-travel/
Completely agree. Am missing getting onto a plane (even though I usually fly domestic), booking a flight with points, lounge hopping from the Amex lounge to the GVK lounge at BOM, enjoying the first drink of my vacation while plane watching.
If Flying a LCC i always pay for priority baggage. There’s something so nice about reaching the baggage claim and seeing your bag being the first to pop through.
The beauty of it is, we all have our own little tricks which work for each of us, but we are united in our love of flying, and flying well at that